Bye Bye Mundane Life!!: Mui Ne

Off to the beach…we had high hopes of topping up our tans in Vietnam, most of our route up North follows the coast and Mui Ne was to be our first seaside resort!! The Lonely Planet describes this place as a small rustic fishing village with a laid back feel and nice beach….on first impressions we were sure the bus had taken us to the wrong place, after driving past 4 miles of 5 star beach resorts and expensive restaurants our bus stopped off at it's own hotel / resort! We almost considered staying on the bus to the next destination certain that there was no way we would find anywhere to eat or drink within our budget! But for one night we decided we would swallow the costs if only just to break up the journey! To our amazement with only a small amount of searching we found a nice guesthouse for just $5 and a restaurant selling food for cheaper than we’d paid in Ho Chi Minh! Things were looking up, but it certainly wasn’t beach weather (overcast, but at least not raining) so we hired bikes for 30p and went to explore the surrounding area! Our noses led us to the fishing village where the streets were lined with drying fish ready to be made into the fish sauce the town is famous for….not wanting to hang around here for long we went to explore another tourist attraction – The Fairy Spring! A dissappointing 15cm deep stream that runs though the sandunes, makes for some interesting coloured sand sculptues but not that exciting! Opted instead to chill out with a few beers and watch the world go by, whilst drinking at our roadside shop we realised they sold a locally produced red wine….being the coniouseurs we are we bought a bottle of the 1.30p wine and headed to the beach to watch the sunset! Now we ain’t exactly fussy when it comes to wine but this stuff was nigh on undrinkable – oh well it will still get you drunk! Feeling a wee bit tipsy now we went back to our bargain restaurant to get some scran to help sober us up….in order to drink a little more! Had a nice evening spent chatting with another English couple before passing out by 10pm – a whole evening eating and drinking for less than 2 pounds each! Woke the next morning to torrential rain, so pleased we were booked onto the bus for today! Managed to fill our morning by lounging in bed, using internet and eating – ok once in a while, but hope the weather improves as we quickly get cabin fever!